Great find today with story!

[IJANLFHELMETS]

Toooo Cool buddy!!!! Congrats on another great documented find! Todd

[Jareth]

Todd, this is actually a three year old post!!

[MikeP]

There was quite a lot of postwar testing of various military rifles.

I believe the Arisakas were the strongst of all.

A lot of crude late war last ditch models made it back,
They did a lot to promote the "Jap junk" theory.

I might hesitate to fire some of these. The safety knobs held by a crude blob of weld.

Also a lot of blank firing trainers were souveniered.

I remember when they practically had to pay you to take a "Jap Rifle."

Vets around here had piles of them.

Of course a Luger was about $25.

[IJANLFHELMETS]

Todd, this is actually a three year old post!!

OOPS! Thanks for the heads-up Jareth. For some reason, I dont remember this one..Todd

[Striking 9th]

Hello all, thanks for bringing this thread back to the top. Imo these were used by snipers, spotters, observers, & regular rifleman. This pair was in use by a professional Japanese sniper. The Australians brought him in after he was KIA. These type of climbing devices were brought up on another forum recently. I dug out a book of mine where another pair are pictured. I will take some pics of what the book says and post them on here. A family member of his owned the T97 scoped sniper this man was using. He actually got pissed that my friend had given these to me. Funny because these were rotting away out in a barn for years and years. When I got them they looked pretty bad. There was a rusty powder on them. Luckily it was only cosmetic. They cleaned right up. Then all of a sudden other people started to care about them. I have been down this road before. I have been told he has sold the sniper rifle. Really a shame as I would have given him way way more then he probably got. Oh well, what can you do.
Scott